Adam, I''m a professional computer repairman who works with the average person every day.
I do so with the lowest common denominator in mind. It''s a common misconception that everyone who joins or searches a tech site is a techie. For some, these techniques may seem a bit too simplistic but they are educational for others.
A feature called "Private Browsing / Incognito mode" is incorporated into modern web browsers. When in this mode, the browser does not save your browser cache, history, or any of the cookies for any of the websites you visit.
What if you could have private browsing but also save all your cookies and keep your browsing history? Perhaps you want to keep a certain part of your browsing private from other individuals who have access to the computer, but also benefit from keeping bookmarks, history, and cookies for site preferences?
This is possible by using two free tools in one package: Veracypt and Portable Firefox.
Note: It should be noted that private browsing / incognito mode also blocks trackers and extensions. Which is not disabled by default in Portable Firefox. This guide will be released at the end of this page.
Veracrypt allows you to create a portable encrypted container that you can store on your computer, via a USB flash drive, or on an external hard drive. Firefox is a Firefox version which requires no installation and can be extracted and run from inside the encrypted container.
Everything you do on portable Firefox is NOT included in the encrypted container, cache, cookie history, extensions, etc.
Today I''ll explain how to setup this.
- Click "Create Volume"
- Put a dot in "Create an encrypted file container" then click "next"
- Click "Standard VeraCrypt Volume" then click next
Now, we have to select a location to place your encrypted container. Click "Select file" and choose where you wish to save it. Now, select the file and include the following names. Click "Save" and choose "next."
Select the size you want the container to be, and I''d say that 4GB is a nice size.
- Click Next
- Now give your encrypted container a password
- Click Next
Now you can maneuver your mouse around like a mad person giving your encryption some randomness. At this point, you may also select your File system type. I''m going to choose NTFS.
- Click "Format" to format your encrypted container.
Congratulations, you''ve just created an encrypted container.
Now let''s get it mounted and include Portable Firefox inside.
- First Click "Select File"
- Locate the container you created and double-click it.
- Click "Mount"
- Type in your password
- Click "OK" (Give it a few seconds)
In my case, your encrypted container will then be mounted to the drive letter above, and in the end, it''s drive letter O. So for the "Destination Folder," I would enter O:
Firefox is now available on portable devices. It can be removed from portableapps.com.
Open it up. It will ask you where you wish to extract the contents. In my case, I''m going to extract it to the root of my new encrypted container, which is located on drive o:
- Click "Install"
That''s it! Now open your containers drive letter, and you should see Portable Firefox!
Now, just open it and customize it to your liking, including extensions, etc.
How to Dissect cross-site Tracking Cookies, Tracking Content, Cryptominers, and Fingerprints.
- Click the 3 horizontal lines in the top right of Firefox and select "Settings".
- Once in settings click "Privacy & Security" On the left.
- On the right Scroll down and select "Custom".
- Now choose what you wish to block.
The other great thing is that it performs like a standard version of Firefox, so that you will always have the most outsourced version!
Close Firefox and return to Veracrypt and click "Dismount" once you have found it.
Sometimes you must press "force dismount."
Happy Computing!
If you learned something today, please share your own tech advice below!